WELLINGTON PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 287, 13 May 1915, Page 6

WELLINGTON PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

IU'.ARRAXGEMENT AND RECONSTRUCTION. (By .Telegraph.—Own Correspondent). Wellington, Last Night. A few sessions ago Parliament was discussing the rearrangement and reconstruction of the public buildings in Wellington, with the object of bringing tinState departments together, reducing housing costs and promoting efficiency through organisation. The destruction by lire of the old Parliamentary Buildings and the increasing age of tile great wooilen block Which accommodates many uf the departments were held to provide an opportunity for the development of ii really comprehensive scheme Put the actual achievement was disappointing. The Governor was provided with a new and rather costly residence at the other end of the town in order that Government House might be used as a temporary meeting place, by d\irliament, and after an immense amount of excavation and filling in had been done in order to provide a level site the construction of the new Parliamentary Buildings was commenced betwoen the (lid Government House and the library wing of the old Parliamentary Buildings. When this work has been completed, tile wooden Government House will lie pulled down and some further use may be made of the ground thus renileiod vacant. But a reasonable convenient arrangement of the public offices si ems a very distant possibility. Tlie quarters of the various departments are scattered so widely t] m t, a motor-cycle messenger service is required to keep them in touch with one another. The Defence Department, for example, has to he sought up at Mt. Cook barracks, better known as Mt. Cook flaol, the gaunt red building which glowers over Ihe southern portion of the city. The Labor Department lias its home in the. Te Aro Post Ollice. The Department of Internal Affairs 'dives" in the General Post Office, and some of the bigger Departments have buildings of their own scattered over the business section of the city in a confused and confusing fashion. There seems to be no remedy now short of the creation of a new capital city at some spot where a block of land could be set a a ide for the erection of the required masses of State buildings.